St. Joseph Conway hires first school resource officer

Bradley Fornash, St. Joseph School resource officer in Conway, stands among elementary students during a brief assembly Nov. 5. Fornash, retired from the Conway Police Department, was hired by the school in August.

Aprille Hanson

Bradley Fornash, St. Joseph School resource officer in Conway, stands among elementary students during a brief assembly Nov. 5. Fornash, retired from the Conway Police Department, was hired by the school in August.

This is a drill

The Conway police department SWAT team completed intruder safety training Nov. 5 at the St. Joseph elementary, middle and high school campuses. It gave each campus an opportunity to test and assess their Emergency Operations Plan for intruders. The training was tailored to each age group:

• Pre-K through third grade had a brief assembly, showing the children what officers look like in their SWAT gear, followed by the team sweeping the buildings and classrooms. Children hunkered down with teachers in their classroom with the lights off and SWAT members calmly searched the classrooms, many waving to students or saying goodbye after the sweep was completed.

• Middle school students also sheltered in place while classrooms were swept. An officer fired simulation rounds in the hall “just so the kids would know what a gunshot sounds like,” said school resource officer Bradley Fornash.

• High school students also experienced room sweeps, simulation rounds and a 911 call. Students were evacuated from classrooms.

All students and parents were informed about the training. No practice intruder was used during the simulation.

“It’s kind of a scary topic for kids, but we tell them it’s a very small chance that anything would ever happen but we just have to be prepared,” Fornash said. “If you’re not prepared, you won’t know what to do when it happens.”

Middle School principal Matthew Tucker said the idea for the simulation began in the summer when Conway Fire Department met with administrators from St. Joseph, Conway public schools and Conway Christian School to find out what safety plans were in place should an active intruder come onto a campus. Three different shifts of fire officials walked through St. Joseph campuses evaluating the buildings.

“Mr. Fornash indicated he knew that Conway SWAT trained on Mondays and that they might want to use our school as a day to train. So from that, Conway Fire said, ‘Hey, if you’re doing that, we want to jump on board,’” Tucker said.

Before the simulation, students watched an intruder training video produced by Catholic Mutual Group and used by the Diocese of Little Rock, and school administrators met with Conway SWAT for planning.

This year, all doors have a second locking mechanism should an intruder try to gain access to a classroom and teachers were asked to create plans beyond a hiding strategy, including escape and “it is last resort, absolutely last resort, but it’s fighting,” Tucker said. “We’re not the only proactive school rethinking strategies, it’s any and all diocesan schools.”

Students have also practiced barricading doors and photos of the barricades will be printed near a door for a reminder to students, a teacher and any substitutes should an emergency arise.

“Violence is violence; violence doesn’t discriminate. Thank God in the state of Arkansas nothing has happened like this in a private school and should it ever present itself here, hopefully we’re better prepared than we would have been otherwise,” Tucker said.

CONWAY — For 20 years, Bradley Fornash worked at the Conway Police Department, including 17 years as a hostage negotiator and 13 as a detective.

Today, it’s less about diffusing life or death situations and more about solving conflicts. Instead of investigating crimes, he’s monitoring the playgrounds. Rather than interrogating criminals, he’s a mentor to students who need it.

Fornash was hired Aug. 15 as the first school resource officer for St. Joseph School in Conway. He is the only resource officer in the 28 Catholic schools in the state.

“I feel like there’s more responsibility here than there actually was at the police department, because there’s so many kids I feel like I have to keep them safe,” Fornash said. “But I get to spend more time going to church, because we go to church on Wednesdays. I try to go by the adoration chapel every day because I’m here. I think just being here on campus with the kids, with the church environment it has made me stronger in my faith.”

“I feel like there’s more responsibility here than there actually was at the police department, because there’s so many kids I feel like I have to keep them safe.” Bradley Fornash, retired police detective now resource officer at St. Joseph School in Conway

A cradle Catholic from Morrilton, Fornash, known to students as Mr. Fornash or Mr. Bradley, attended Sacred Heart School in Morrilton through the ninth grade before transferring to the public school to play football. He’s been a member of St. Joseph Church in Conway for 20 years and his son Aidan, 9, is a fourth-grade student at St. Joseph. Fornash was able to retire from the police department in July and “jokingly” suggested to Courtney Pope, principal at St. Joseph Elementary School, that they should “just hire me to help out.”

“Last year they had some break-ins and some things that happened,” Fornash said, including $5,000 worth of iPads, Chromebooks and a charging station stolen last spring break. “I worked the cases.”

The joke soon became a real conversation with high school principal Diane Wolfe, who was on board from the beginning. Pope said Fornash was perfect for the job because he already knew the culture of the school and parish.

“He’s a great person for this job because of his leadership, his compassion for kids, his willingness to jump in, change wherever we need him,” she said. “… He has a child here, it matters to him. It’s not just his job.”

His duties vary throughout the day, from walking about seven miles a day or riding in a golf cart around the perimeters of the school buildings, assisting with pick-up and drop-off at the elementary school, monitoring recess for elementary and middle school students and being present at lunch for middle school and high school students. He was instrumental in getting a gate to regulate traffic by the elementary school for safer school drop-offs and requesting a radio, which other area schools also inquired about following his lead, that connects him immediately to city dispatch if there were an emergency.

Fornash has also sat in on some parent meetings because “I’m good at deescalating situations.”

“It’s just resolving conflict,” he said, adding with students, “if they’re not being truthful, I’m pretty good at picking up on that.”

Pope said his versatility and willingness to help in any way has been a positive.

“I can call him after hours and run something by him and he truly thinks about it, all scenarios, and sometimes he’ll say, ‘I’m not sure, let me think about it and get back to you.’ So he’s very reflective and makes the best decisions for our school,” she said.

While his job duties continue to evolve, Fornash has made it a point to provide more safety programs for students. He’s helped bring in both officers and a judge to speak on internet and phone safety, drugs and on Nov. 5, the school’s first Conway SWAT-led intruder safety training (See sidebar at left).

“He sees things differently than I do, I’m an educator,” said middle school principal Matthew Tucker said. “So I don’t see it as he does. He’s already seen a few things that he’s brought to the parish’s attention and the school’s attention.”

“He’s been a great asset in terms of talking to Conway fire, Conway PD. There was communication before, but it’s so seamless now … I’m wondering how did we not have him before?” Tucker added. “Schools are changing. Just like there used to not be an IT person at schools, but as technology increased, you needed someone to handle IT.”

It has been tough for some students to shed the notion that Fornash is no longer an “officer” in the police sense of the word, but they are warming up to him thanks to his commitment to approachability, even weightlifting with student athletes on occasion.

He said there are a few “I talk to on a regular basis that need guidance” and if more is needed, he’ll refer them to the school counselors.

“I’ve explained to them I left my job as a police officer. I’m a retired officer. I’m not here to arrest you, put you in jail. I’m here to help keep you safe and to help you. I’m not here to get you in trouble,” he said. “When I retired, I don’t arrest people. They’re kind of seeing that now.”

This is a drill

The Conway police department SWAT team completed intruder safety training Nov. 5 at the St. Joseph elementary, middle and high school campuses. It gave each campus an opportunity to test and assess their Emergency Operations Plan for intruders. The training was tailored to each age group:

• Pre-K through third grade had a brief assembly, showing the children what officers look like in their SWAT gear, followed by the team sweeping the buildings and classrooms. Children hunkered down with teachers in their classroom with the lights off and SWAT members calmly searched the classrooms, many waving to students or saying goodbye after the sweep was completed.

• Middle school students also sheltered in place while classrooms were swept. An officer fired simulation rounds in the hall “just so the kids would know what a gunshot sounds like,” said school resource officer Bradley Fornash.

• High school students also experienced room sweeps, simulation rounds and a 911 call. Students were evacuated from classrooms.

All students and parents were informed about the training. No practice intruder was used during the simulation.

“It’s kind of a scary topic for kids, but we tell them it’s a very small chance that anything would ever happen but we just have to be prepared,” Fornash said. “If you’re not prepared, you won’t know what to do when it happens.”

Middle School principal Matthew Tucker said the idea for the simulation began in the summer when Conway Fire Department met with administrators from St. Joseph, Conway public schools and Conway Christian School to find out what safety plans were in place should an active intruder come onto a campus. Three different shifts of fire officials walked through St. Joseph campuses evaluating the buildings.

“Mr. Fornash indicated he knew that Conway SWAT trained on Mondays and that they might want to use our school as a day to train. So from that, Conway Fire said, ‘Hey, if you’re doing that, we want to jump on board,’” Tucker said.

Before the simulation, students watched an intruder training video produced by Catholic Mutual Group and used by the Diocese of Little Rock, and school administrators met with Conway SWAT for planning.

This year, all doors have a second locking mechanism should an intruder try to gain access to a classroom and teachers were asked to create plans beyond a hiding strategy, including escape and “it is last resort, absolutely last resort, but it’s fighting,” Tucker said. “We’re not the only proactive school rethinking strategies, it’s any and all diocesan schools.”

Students have also practiced barricading doors and photos of the barricades will be printed near a door for a reminder to students, a teacher and any substitutes should an emergency arise.

“Violence is violence; violence doesn’t discriminate. Thank God in the state of Arkansas nothing has happened like this in a private school and should it ever present itself here, hopefully we’re better prepared than we would have been otherwise,” Tucker said.

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